


The Key

by Jessa



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bonding, Emotionally Hurt Magnus Bane, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Mild Ghost Story Typical Violence (Implied), Mild Language, POV Magnus Bane, Past Clary Fray/Jace Wayland, Past Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Prompt Fill, References to Jealousy and Related Themes, Repressed Bisexual Jace Wayland, Sexual References, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:47:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26802391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessa/pseuds/Jessa
Summary: Magnus has suffered another heartache in a very long history of them; he has broken up with Alec but misses him terribly.And even though Magnus doesn’t therefore feel like doing too much of anything this Halloween, he has owed Catarina a favour for a while so tonight he is babysitting Madzie.Everything’s going as well as it could until a visitor Magnus would rather not have shows up uninvited and drunk. Turns out he’s had a recent heartache too.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Jace Wayland
Comments: 10
Kudos: 18
Collections: SHBingo 20-21





	The Key

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Polarnacht](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polarnacht/gifts).



> Written in response to the Halloween Fic square on my SH Bingo card.  
> 
> 
> Thanks to Polarnacht for pre-reading and encouraging me and to Toby for suggesting the key could actually be important!
> 
> Thank you for checking this out and I hope you enjoy the read <3
> 
> Not exactly a traditional Halloween-type fic but who’s having a traditional Halloween-type anything today? Not me. 
> 
> Happy Halloween anyway! 🎃👻🕸

“Are you ready now, Madzie?” Magnus asks.

She snuggles down a little bit further beneath the covers of the special bed he’s conjured just for her. The same one he always conjures in the guest bedroom when she stays. And when the guest wing’s not occupied by Jace but there is no risk of that anymore. Magnus tries to banish that thought.

Tonight, given the occasion, this special bed is covered in orange and black bedding patterned by prints of toothy jack-o’-lanterns. It’s windy outside the loft and, as a treat, Magnus has allowed not the draughts but just the sounds of the howling gale out there to permeate the walls; creating a scary ambience for Madzie while he tells her a ghost story before she goes to sleep. 

From her warm cosy place in the bed, she smiles up at him and says, “Yeah, you can start now, Uncle Magnus. Make it a really scary one, okay?”

“Once upon a blood-curdling time,” Magnus begins, “There was a very lonely ghost.”

“Do ghosts get very lonely?” Madzie asks skeptically, giving him a quizzical look.

“Of course ghosts get very lonely,” Magnus says, mildly perturbed. “They’re very old. Haven't you ever heard of Casper?”

“Casper is friendly, Uncle Magnus,” Madzie says. “Not really lonely, he has lots of friends. And he’s not really so old either. Casper’s just a kid.”

Magnus frowns. “Well-”

“It’s okay, Uncle,” Madzie says. “It can be a story about a very old and very lonely ghost, that’s fine. Or a very sad ghost. Casper was a very sad ghost. And if the ghost was very sad, well, that would make them even more like a Warlock.”

“Warlocks aren’t very sad, per se,” Magnus says, although he knows that’s not completely true but, given they’re supposed to be having fun tonight, he feels obliged to say something like this. Something vaguely cheerful. “You and I aren’t very sad now, are we?” he asks. “We’re having fun. It’s Halloween. This is our special holiday, sweet pea, and I’ve been having an absolute blast so far tonight. Haven’t you?”

It’s Madzie’s turn to frown. “But you’re sad, Uncle Magnus. That’s what Catarina said. She said to be gentle with you. And only do things you want.” Madzie moves closer on her pillow to the side of the bed where Magnus sits. She calls him down to her level with her hand. He dips his head low to listen. “Because you and Uncle Alec broke up,” she whispers.

Magnus’ eyes widen in unwelcome surprise. “Maybe I’ll just find you a nice fairy-tale on Audible-”

“No, don’t do that!” Madzie pleads. “Made-up scary stories are so much better but maybe I could tell you one. How about that? I’ve made up lots of good ones lately.”

Magnus gives her a heartfelt smile but it’s also one he knows is just a little bit worn around the edges. He’s tired. But nevertheless he says, “I would love to hear one of your made-up scary stories, my sweet pea. Will this be a very scary one?”

“Of course,” Madzie replies. “It’s Halloween. But it’s a bedtime story too. So first you’ll need to lie down.”

Magnus sighs. Some of the wear comes away from his smile though; maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to lie down now for a little while and listen to an eight-year-old’s very scary bedtime story.

* * *

One story turns into several. It’s Magnus who falls asleep first. He wakes up to the sounds of the howling gale outside, still magically permeating the walls of the loft. 

Madzie is fast asleep, her fingers curled around his. Gently, Magnus unwinds their hands. He gets up off the bed, careful not to wake her, although he can sense that she is deeply asleep; and if she can sleep through a howling gale then she can surely sleep through one soft creak from an innerspring. So maybe he has nothing to worry about.

Still, Magnus leaves the guest bedroom as quietly as he can and pads on his bare feet back to the lounge. All the inner doors of the loft are still open from earlier, when they’d been playing magical tricks on each other, making Halloween-themed food and watching _Kiki’s Delivery Service_ before Madzie’s bedtime. The candle flames still flicker and with a tired snap Magnus extinguishes their lights but the lounge remains illuminated by garlands of skull-shaped LEDs. 

At the start of their evening together, he and Madzie slung these up by hand around the bookshelves. Then Madzie practised charming them various colours. The last scheme she chose was rainbow. Magnus looks at the clusters of cheerful spectrums sadly. He could snap them out too, he supposes, but they remind him of Alec so he doesn’t. 

Magnus sighs. He feels as old as the ghost in the story he never told to Madzie. For a moment, all he does is stand in the middle of the lounge. Eyes on the rainbow lights but not really focusing on any in particular. Not really focusing on anything. Vaguely aware of the ways the colours sparkle, refracting in the glass of the liquor bottles stored on the drinks table in his periphery. 

He knows that if he goes to bed now he won’t sleep. Perhaps if he procures a nightcap it might help. If not to put him back to sleep then at least to pass the hours until Catarina returns in the morning from the Halloween-themed party she’s attending tonight with her nurse friends.

Magnus takes a step toward the table as a series of thumps resound from the sealed entrance doors on the other side of the loft. He stops and narrows his eyes toward them. That particular sequence of thumps is familiar. The noise repeats so he changes tack and heads for the doors; Madzie might be able to sleep through a gale but the sounds of Alec’s drunken Parabatai showing up at the loft on a Saturday night are enough to wake a dead mundane.

“I’ve told you before,” Magnus says tiredly, even before he’s finished unsealing the front doors to lay eyes on Jace’s flushed face, because this is far from the first time it’s happened like this, “Your key is-”

“No, it isn’t,” Jace says. “It’s not there. Just... Please let me in? I’ve really gotta piss.”

Magnus steps out of his way. He frowns at the back of Jace as he stumbles through to the guest bathroom. Then Magnus turns back to the entranceway and frowns down at the overturned floor mat. 

It dawns on him that Jace is right, the special key he keeps out here, only out here for Jace, is not out here anymore. Magnus removed it a week ago when Alec left, just in the unlikely case the strength of the wards he maintains around the loft waned and were breached; and Jace’s special key was found. It had happened before, during times of distress, that his magic would falter in moments of emotional weakness; flux with his feelings and leave him prone to being attacked. But he also never imagined that Jace would need to ever turn up here again. Yet here he is.

Magnus smoothes the mat with a small motion from his fingers then reseals the entrance doors. He also seals the guest bedroom with a ward only Madzie and himself can penetrate. Just in case Jace ends up stumbling down to that wing too, to sleep off whatever’s in his system. 

There've been other times, often when he’s been accompanied by a woman, and more often than not lately that woman’s been Clary, when Jace has arrived like this, unannounced; and not emerged again from the guest wing until the next day’s afternoon. It was a little of the reason why Jace had been given a key and not the full immunity to his wards that he had given to Alec. Magnus could better predict Alexander. Things weren’t quite like that with Jace.

If what Jace really needs now is not a bathroom but a place to sleep, Magnus is sure he’ll make it known. And there’s always the master bedroom; Magnus doubts he himself will fall back asleep tonight anyway so it would be difficult to find a legitimate reason to deny Jace his bed.

Magnus wanders back to where he was a moment ago, before Jace arrived in his usual unannounced fashion; completing the walk to the drinks table in the lounge and collecting the bottle of single malt whiskey, along with two tumbler glasses. Something, maybe the recent conversation with Madzie about sadness and loneliness, has swayed him toward the collection of these things now. He knows what Jace drinks but they don’t normally drink alone together and besides, the ruddied cheeks on him indicate Jace is already sufficiently loaded. 

Nonetheless, Magnus unseals the doors of the balcony and walks out there with the bottle and the pair of glasses. The cool late-October air refreshes his skin. The wind rustling his clothing and bringing scents of the bay to his nose. He sets the things down on a little outdoor table and seats himself on one side of a long wicker bench. Both of these items are recent additions to the balcony. There are some things he’s kept to remind himself of Alec but many others have started to go, the old wicker sofa among them. Too many memories will tip him too far.

“You’ve redecorated.”

Magnus looks up from where he sits. “You’ve noticed,” he responds to Jace, actually surprised.

“Mind if I share?” Jace asks, indicating the free space next to Magnus on the bench.

“Plenty of room,” he answers. “It’s not comfortable though,” he adds quickly. “It’s not what the sofa was. But, to be honest, that’s intentional.”

“S’alright,” Jace says, slurring the words heavily as he sits and spreads his knees wide. Magnus crosses his own neatly, eyeing the holster strapped to the leathered thigh of Alec’s Parabatai, although he is trying very hard not to. “I get it,” Jace adds, running a hand through his hair roughly and eyeing off the bottle of whiskey. “That for pouring?” he asks. “Or are we just sitting here wishing?”

Magnus sighs. “Before I answer that, Jace, I feel there are things I should ask you. One of them is, are you okay? Another one is, what have you already had?”

“Alec broke up with you, right?”

Magnus narrows his eyes again. “Don’t change the-”

“I’m not,” Jace says. “It’s relevant, trust me.”

“Famous last words… No, actually, Jace. I broke it off with Alexander. Okay? I’m surprised you didn’t know that already. He hasn’t told you? That’s curious.”

“I didn’t ask,” he answers. “I just know. You know? Well, not the details, just-”

“Yes, I know,” Magnus says wearily, not wanting to be reminded now of the morning after he first slept with Alec, or of how awkward the revelation Jace made then had been; that he could sense what Alec could feel. “I remember.”

Jace reaches for the bottle. “Clary broke it off with me,” he says. “So, _happy Halloween_.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Magnus sympathises, having to force himself quite a lot to overlook Jace’s continuing sarcasm because quipping wryly at the moment is actually a very relatable impulse, and up until this point Magnus had been almost on the verge of enjoying it. “Perhaps you would like to talk about it, Jace? Sometimes talking can help with the pain.”

“Yeah, sometimes so can drinking.” Jace twists the cap off the whiskey and pours himself three fingers. “You want?” he asks. “Or, no? I mean, I’m assuming there’s a reason why you brought two glasses out here. Oh, wait… You _are_ alone here tonight...right? Shit-”

“I’m babysitting, actually,” Magnus reveals. “Good of you, though, to entertain such self-awareness.”

“Huh?”

“It’s okay,” he adds, feeling mildly guilty for falling back into the bad habit of ribbing Jace. Perhaps it would be fine if he were sober but right now he’s clearly not. “Madzie is asleep and I can share a sympathy drink with you now if that’s what you need. To be honest, you’re right. I was contemplating one anyway. Maybe two. Maybe several. Three fingers always do look rather good.”

Even through the fog of whatever’s in his system, Magnus can tell that Jace is a little surprised. “Are you flirting with me?” he asks. “Are you talking about fingers because… Well, you know-”

“Do you know that I _don’t_ even know anymore?” Magnus answers sadly. “All I know at the moment is that I wasn’t kidding at all about the whiskey.”

“Can I ask you something?” Jace pours the second glass out for Magnus before picking up his own and, to Magnus’ horror, promptly draining all three fingers. “What’s with the howling gale inside?” His voice is a little raspy. “That noise is scary as fuck.” Jace swallows again and sets down his glass with a shudder.

“Oh,” Magnus says, smiling fondly at the recent memory and reaching forward now to collect his own drink. “That was for Madzie. We were telling ghost stories and she likes to be scared. So I was just creating some Halloween ambience.”

“Wow.” Jace gives his head a slow and completely non-comprehending type of shake. “Warlocks...” He slides a little further south on the wicker bench, looking a lot more than just inebriated. Looking just plain tired too. “I know a ghost story,” Jace starts. “Did you know that Herondales can see ghosts?”

His voice trails away, though, and Magnus studies him carefully. Then he sets his half-finished drink back down on the table and gently slides one arm behind the small of Jace’s slumped back, assisting his effort to raise Jace with the smallest application of a strength charm. 

“Jace,” Magnus says softly, “You mustn’t fall asleep out here, darling. It’s very cold already and it will only get much colder. Let me help you back inside. Okay?”

“Kay,” Jace mumbles, and Magnus helps him up and to his feet.

* * *

For the second time tonight, Magnus wakes up to the sounds of a howling gale. When he opens his eyes, Jace is still there on the bed in the master bedroom, almost exactly where he fell asleep when Magnus helped him here to it earlier. One thing is very different about him now though; Jace is not asleep anymore.

“She woke up,” he says quietly. 

Magnus sits up very quickly and just as hurriedly throws his bare feet over the edge of the bed. 

“She’s okay,” Jace mumbles while Magnus opens a portal, right there beside the bed, to see for himself whether that’s true or not. “Just wanted water. I helped her reach the glasses. Said she couldn’t get them by herself.”

Through the portal, as Magnus watches Madzie sleep, he notices a glass half-filled with water on the bedside table that definitely wasn’t there before. Jace is telling the truth.

“Shook me awake,” Jace adds. “I was surprised she remembered me, you know? Just walked with her to the kitchen... But I couldn’t get through to the guest wing... You put a ward up, didn’t you? Don’t trust me, huh? Is that why you took the key away too, Magnus? I know it’s not because you can’t trust a Shadowhunter... Although...if you broke up with one, well...then maybe it is because of that... And you can’t trust a drunk either, can you? Shadowhunter or not. Huh? You can’t trust a drunk either, Magnus... But I guess that’s okay because apparently neither can Clary.”

Magnus closes his eyes. When did this Halloween become so difficult? Maybe it was actually long before today. A week ago, when Alec walked out. Or longer. Much, much longer.

Magnus lies down. “Do you remember why I gave you that key, Jace?”

Jace’s eyes have closed again. “To get in,” he mumbles some more. “To get in here because I’m not Alec but sometimes he would need me... And you knew that and you couldn’t do a damn thing about it... And you didn’t like that.”

“No,” Magnus says. He curls himself in towards Jace. Jace is already curled into a foetal position so now they face each other on the bed. Lying over the covers.

Jace’s eyes open by just a crack. And even in the darkness Magnus can see how bloodshot they are; he must have the most thumping headache. Magnus reaches out to take Jace by the nearest hand and soft blue curls of his magic start to wend their way between their entangled fingers. Jace closes his eyes. 

“It was because I wanted you here,” Magnus says very quietly. “I needed you to be able to be here, yes. But I also wanted it. And I’ve never had a need for a door key but they’re so quaint.”

Jace opens his eyes, wider than before and Magnus can tell that slowly he’s starting to sober. The magic is working. “What…?”

“Can I tell you a ghost story, Jace?” Magnus asks. “Seeing as it’s Halloween and all?”

Jace frowns and Magnus braces. But after a few more moments, Jace says, “Sure. Why the hell not.”

“Once upon a blood-curdling time,” Magnus re-begins, “There was a very lonely ghost. He’d been a ghost for over four-hundred years which is very unusual for those kinds of creatures. They don’t normally hang around the lands of the living for anywhere near that long. They resolve their business and then they move on but that’s why this ghost was so very lonely. It’s not that he couldn’t move on. It’s just that he didn’t want to. He wasn’t ready. He hadn’t resolved his business.”

Magnus takes a deep, steadying breath. “And then one Halloween night,” he continues, “The very lonely ghost was so tired of being that way that he became terribly jealous of all whom he perceived as the opposite. The living were so content. Playing their tricks on one another and yet still remaining friends. Halloween after Halloween after Halloween. So, on the night of that particular one, he decided to take vengeance on them for that. The ghost stole the key to a home. He’d seen keys many times and liked them. He had no use for such things, however. Ghosts just go through the walls.”

“What’d you do?” Jace murmurs.

“Nobody suffered very much for the ghost’s retaliatory and rather pointless theft,” Magnus says. “The children of the home were blamed for losing the key, and punished for it, but they grew to have happy lives after that. The ghost watched them until they died to make sure. But the ghost stayed exactly the same. Just as very lonely as before. His only companion, for the next four-hundred years, one useless key that would always remind him of that one very senseless and envious act.”

“You stole it,” Jace presses. “You’re the very lonely ghost.”

“It’s a story, Jace,” Magnus says. “It’s not true.” But he presses Jace’s special key into the palm of Jace’s hand, the hand Magnus still holds. “Please keep it. I’m sorry for taking it away. I don’t know what will happen next with Alexander... We’ve...had some troubles before... I don’t know what will happen next between you and Clary but... Jace, I’m so lonely sometimes... And I have friends, yes, and many Warlock friends too... Who do understand just a little of what it’s like but they don’t always know it all... All the kinds of pain I feel, but around you... Around you I feel like less of the shell of someone who died a very long time ago... A little bit more connected to the lands of the living... But I fear it’s taken me far too long to realise that... Scary. Don’t you think?”

Jace sighs. So does Magnus. And they fall asleep, side by side like that, with the key still pressed between their hands.


End file.
